“Captain on the bridge!” Ensign Lowe announced as the dark haired Sarah O’Malley Rushed up the stairs and onto the bridge.

“Number One! What the hell’s going on? What kind of signal are we dealing with?”

“Unknown at this time, Captain,” Sokolov said, without looking up from his monitor. “We picked it up about an hour ago as cosmic background noise, but its pattern was too regular and tripped one of our algorithms. We’re not close enough to determine its source, but it doesn’t seem to be natural.”

“Ms. Abioye, plot a course to the signal’s source, preferably without exacerbating Mr. Lowe’s condition.” The captain pressed the button on the arm of her chair. “O’Malley to engineering. Arban, I’m going to need everything you have.”